Monday Dec 19, 2005 05:27 PM

“Welcome!”

I am thrilled to welcome you to the UNHOOKED GENERATION website and to my very first blog. The publication of my book is only a few weeks away and I am a little nervous, but mostly excited. This blog invites dialog about topics of interest to mostly urban, single twenty- and thirty-somethings. The blog will be updated every couple of weeks to keep things interesting.

This time of year you are probably thinking about where you will spend New Year's Eve. For me, New Year's Eve used to be loaded with expectations for a spectacular night out. Every year around this time I find myself faced with the choice between a crowded party full of strangers or a more intimate gathering with close "couple" friends. Either way, I always dreaded facing the stroke of midnight alone.

A few years ago my then-single friends (male and female), who live all over the country, started a standing New Year's tradition of meeting up and spending New Year's together. Instead of fighting the crowds, we stayed in and cooked dinner. We shared New Year's resolutions: to procrastinate less, to achieve more, to spend more time with family, to lose weight, to go to the gym. We wrote down the names of old flames, gripes with co-workers, phobias that were holding us back, and threw them into a bonfire. One by one we also shared our "best discoveries" of the past year. Last year, mine were Baked Lays and UGG Slippers. At midnight, we'd click our champagne glasses and hug and kiss. No one had dates but we had each other. It was a perfect way to spend the holiday. A few years ago the tradition ended when someone got married. So my standing New Year's date is no longer standing. The couples split off and did their own thing, and so did the singles. It seems New Year's , more than any other holiday, is divided among 'party' lines: singles generally go to one party and couples go to another. That's just the way it is. I miss our old tradition. Maybe we'll start the tradition back up again one day, or maybe it's simply time to start a new one.

Well anyway, Happy New Year and thanks so much for reading!